Letter issued weeks after women were discovered living at the spa

A Newschannel 5 investigation reveals it took the Williston planning director weeks to act on a request from police to issue a zoning violation to the spa that is now shut down for alleged prostitution.

Williston detectives tell Newschannel 5 most everyone in town knows about the alleged prostitution at Harmony Spa.

That includes those working in the planning and zoning office, who took weeks to act on a police request that detectives say could have helped shut the business down.

“The spa is one of those things that for most of us here in town, we would just as soon have it go away,” Williston planning director and zoning administrator Ken Belleveau said.

Belleveau said he knew about the rumors: the women at the now defunct Harmony Spa who were allegedly being held against their will and forced to perform sex acts for money.

And then police asked for his help.

“When we became aware that it appeared to us the women were actually living inside the building in what is not zoned as a residential area we figured we'd attack it from every said,” Williston police detective Bart Chamberlain said.

Documents obtained by Newschannel five through an open records request show the exchange.

In an email, Chamberlain tells Belleveau after an investigation he found three bedrooms inside Harmony spa and he determined two women were living on site.

But despite the April request, Belleveau didn't issue a letter to the property's owner, Thomas Booska, who's now charged with knowing a brothel was being run on his property, until early June.

“I should've sent the letter out sooner. I should've sent the letter out sooner you're right I should have,” Belleveau said.

“Certainly our hope after nine years of watching this business continue that we did want to pursue every angle that we could to get it closed,” Chamberlain added.

Chamberlain says Williston Police had been receiving reports about the activity at Harmony Spa for years, but were unable to act on their information because when questioned the female employees they would never admit they were victims.

“It was very difficult for us both personally and professionally to drive by that building almost every day and to know or to at least believe what was occurring and to be unable as quickly as we wanted to anyway to do something about to address it and be able to help the victims in it,” Chamberlain explained.